


Rainy Memories

by Marlex7



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Established Relationship, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 17:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4487550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marlex7/pseuds/Marlex7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers has never been a fan of rain. He had good reasons, but one Darcy Lewis might be able to change his mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainy Memories

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a prompt at the Bites Sized Bits of Fic community on LiveJournal. The prompt was: Author’s choice, author’s choice, ‘I never liked the rain ‘till I walked through it with you.’ Hope you enjoy. Comments are welcome.

Steve Rogers never liked the rain. When he was a child, it meant he had to stay in the tiny apartment he shared with his mother. He loved his mother, but he wanted to go out and play like the other kids. She, however, rightfully feared his frail body wouldn’t be able to fight off the resulting chill from his getting wet and so inside he stayed.

He never blamed his mother, but he would look forlornly out the window at the other children running from puddle to puddle, their laughter carrying all the way up to their floor, serving as a reminder of yet another thing denied him.

One gloomy summer day, the fourth straight he’d been stuck inside, Steve, in a rare act of defiance against his mother, sneaked out of the apartment, down the three flights of stairs and into the rain. The falling drops were warm and the air thick with moisture. The hours he spent outside were just as much fun as he imagined.

Unfortunately, the result was just as his mother feared. The cough started soon after dinner and by the next morning he had a fever. Steve would end up staying in bed the next two weeks, his mother unable at times to hide her tears, and he knew she feared this would be the end of him. It wasn’t, but she missed so much work she almost lost her job and Steve, wracked with guilt, vowed to never disobey her again. Over the years, he broke that vow several times, but he did make sure to avoid the rain at all costs.

*****

Much later, after Erskine and the serum, he found himself in Europe, and his dislike of rain grew to an outright hatred. Bad weather meant mud and delays and an increased chance of disease. Although his new body could handle any potential outbreak, his men could not, and each time the rain began, he felt what it must have been like to be his mother back in Brooklyn.

It was bad enough to lose men to the enemy, but watching soldiers confined to cots coughing up blood sparked such a rage inside him that sometimes it was all Bucky and Peggy could do to calm him down..

*****

Upon waking in the 21st century, Steve was indifferent to the rain, but stormy weather would occasionally bring back memories of sweat-soaked sheets, his mother’s worried voice, or miles-long marches through knee-deep mud to reach their latest Hydra target. They were all memories he would rather forget.

Fortunately, living in Avengers Tower meant he rarely had to leave the building if he didn’t want to, and when it was raining, he definitely did not want to. This particular day, he was resting in the plush den of the common floor, absentmindedly flipping through a magazine. The floor-to-ceiling windows gave a wonderful view of the city, or at least it would have but for the gray clouds and rain, almost silently pattering against the glass.

“Hey Steve,” Darcy Lewis said, appearing as if out of nowhere and plopping down next to him on the couch with a contented sigh.

Steve should have known his quiet afternoon wouldn’t last, but at least this particular interruption was a welcome one.

“Hey doll,” he said, looking up from his magazine to give her a quick kiss.

The two had been dating for three months. They’d known each other long before that as fellow tower residents and regular participants in the Avengers’ various “family nights,” but then Steve finally worked up the nerve to ask her to dinner. With the world knowing Steve Rogers and Captain America were one and the same, they had to be careful, but so far they’d avoided the paparazzi and their relationship, outside of their friends, remained a secret.

“Shouldn’t you be in the lab?” he asked good-naturedly.

“Jane is officially on a science time-out after she sneaked back into the lab last night and didn’t sleep,” Darcy said. “Stark is still out of town and Bruce is between projects, so he agreed that we should call it a day.”

Steve laughed and pulled her over gently so she was sitting in his lap. “So, what should I do with a suddenly free girlfriend?”

Darcy laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. She made a show of thinking hard about something and then said, “I have an idea.”

Steve smirked and kissed her nose. “Oh really?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter Rogers. That’s for later. For now, just follow me.”

And so he did, letting her pull him from the couch, keeping a hold of her hand as she led him to the elevator. They exited several floors up and Steve quickly realized this wasn’t one he was familiar with. He followed her down a hallway and into yet another plushly furnished room.

Darcy stopped in front of a glass door which opened out onto a deck, much smaller than the one Tony used for parties, but sizable none the less. Steve could see the rain falling outside. It was not storming, but the rain was still harder than a light shower.

Darcy looked pensive, an expression Steve knew she tended to wear when she was about to do something crazy and wasn’t sure he if would be on board.

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Of course,” he replied automatically, because it was the truth.

“Then come on,” she said, and pushed the door open and pulled him out after her.

The rain was strong enough that he was soaked almost immediately. It felt somewhat uncomfortable, but the he quickly ignored the sensation as he watched Darcy prance about on the deck, allowing the rain to drench her. The smile on her face was one of pure joy and exhilaration.

“Isn’t this just great?” she asked him with a smile.

“Umm...” Steve said, not sure exactly what she saw in this.

He watched her smile falter a bit upon his non-response. “You don’t like this, do you?”

“Never been a big fan of the rain,” he answered.

She walked back over to him, her hair now plastered to her hair. “You never ran out into the rain as a kid?”

“Once,” he replied softly. “I got sick and nearly died.” The expression on Darcy’s face made him feel like he had just kicked a puppy.

“Oh shit. I’m sorry Steve,” she said. “We can go back in. I just love the rain and I thought it would something crazy we could do together.”

Steve shook his head. “No. We don’t have to go in.” She gave him an incredulous look. “Really. I want to know why you like this so much.” He hugged her close and leaned down so his head was resting on her shoulder.

“When I was small, we lived in the country,” Darcy began. “My sisters and I would run around in the rain and have a grand old time. A lot of times my parents would join us, and they always seemed so happy. When you grow up, you’re supposed to leave those kinds of things behind, but if I was having a bad day, or week, I would run out into the rain and for a few minutes I’d be that little kid again who didn’t have to worry about tests or boys or college or whatever it was that was bothering me.”

Darcy looked at him and he could imagine the little girl running around in the rain smiling at her parents. “Are you having a bad day?” he asked.

“No,” she said with a smile. “It’s actually been a good one. I got to leave work early and now I’m spending time with my wonderful boyfriend. I just know you have to deal with so much crap, I wanted to share this with you. I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories.”

Steve thought back on that day in Brooklyn when he sneaked out of the apartment. Not the time afterward and the resulting pain and worry, but the time he spent outside with the other neighborhood kids, feeling for the first time like he was just like them. The specifics were a bit blurry with time, but he couldn’t help the smile forming on his face as he thought about it more.

So much had happened to him since that day. He lost his mother. He lost Bucky. He become Captain America. He went to war and was frozen for seventy years. Even now, after he successfully dealt with many of his demons from being the man out of time, he still saw death and destruction on a semi-regular basis during his work with the Avengers.

Some innocent fun was probably in order. He kissed Darcy on the forehead, and said, “You are a wonderfully smart woman and I still don’t know what you see in me sometimes.”

“I’m just special like that,” she said with a laugh.

“Let’s play in the rain,” Steve said.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Absolutely.” And he followed her further onto the deck, feeling the rain sluice over him and memories old and new flashed before him, but these were happy ones.

Steve watched Darcy twirl and laugh and he laughed with her. And he couldn’t help but notice what the water was doing to Darcy’s clothes and how they clung now to her figure. Perhaps not all of the fun would be innocent after all.


End file.
